I Am (8.5.12 Chris Jewell)

I am a big fan of the gospel of John. Much of this has to do with its highly symbolic writing—meaning the words point far beyond them-selves and open up another dimension of reality. In divinity school I discovered that approaching and going inside this text was an odd experience. You feel you are walking up on a structure like any other—let’s say your average house—but then you enter and discover that somehow the architect and the builders have managed to put the entire universe inside this little house. The infinite within the finite.

Last week Margaret explored John 6:16-21. In that text Jesus walks on the water and tells the disciples not to be afraid even though the sea is rough and they are watching a man walking on water. As Margaret told us, Jesus says something deeply fascinating to them in verse 21—as he approaches the disciple’s boat he says, “do not be afraid it is I”,  but in the original Greek it actually says, “do not be afraid—it is I AM”. This is precisely the reason I became fascinated by the gospel of John in divinity school—these mysterious “I AM” SAYINGS. These sayings alone tell us that John is a “mystical gospel”. In fact as early as the 3^rd century CE, the gospel of John was being referred to as “the spiritual gospel”. Its author soon came to be called John the Theologos, (in English this word means “divine” or “theologian”)—a term that, in antiquity, suggested the mystic rather than the professional or academic theologian of today. The earliest commentaries on the book, written in the 2cd and 3^rd centuries, both suggest the book is mystical.  I want to say what I mean by “mystical”—the word points to “the art of establishing conscious relation with the absolute—or in other words, THE ART OF ESTABLISHING CONSCIOUS RELATION WITH GOD. ”  If one wishes to establish a conscious relation to anything, including the Absolute or God, one begins by directing his or her attention to it. Attention is a key concept here, for as many of us know, what captures and holds our attention often seems to have a funny way of becoming our God—money, drugs, food, sex, the list is endless.   What I want to suggest right now is this: the goal of the author of the gospel of John is, for the audience, like the people who encounter Jesus in the gospel, to consciously focus their attention upon Jesus, the supreme revelation of God—the ultimate reality—that which brings all things into existence—and that which, ultimately, sustains all life. Throughout the gospel John is consistently redirecting the attention of his audience away from the external or material and back to the divine in Jesus—we will see an example of this as we explore today’s text.

The reading for today picks up at verse 24 of john’s sixth chapter. In this verse the crowd that was fed in the feeding of the five thousand is getting into a boat to go off and look for Jesus, for he has gone off by himself, realizing the crowd has misunderstood his mission—they want to make him a political leader—a Gandhi, a Jack Kennedy, a Martin Luther King, a Susan B.  Anthony—but Jesus is not a political leader—he is not a republican or a democrat---this is clear in John. Political leaders reform within the structure of society—as we all know they might shuffle the deck, modify the old creation—in the gospel of John Jesus does not represent reform within the structure of society—for Jesus is the man from heaven  and—his kingdom is not of this world—in John Jesus clearly represents a revolution from outside the structure—HE IS a very strange being—one that, as we saw in Margaret’s sermon, can do things like walk on water, terrifying even his closest followers. Having Jesus go off by himself is another example of John redirecting the reader’s attention away from the external and back to the divine. John is telling us—to begin understanding this being don’t look toward political reality—look beyond that—toward the spiritual level of reality.

Again, in verse 24 we hear that the crowd has gone looking for Jesus. And then in verse 25, they find him on the other side of the sea. They ask him, “Rabbi, when did you come here? And Jesus answers them in a way that reveals his deep dissatisfaction with his audience—in fact all through the gospel of John Jesus is quite critical of the people listening to him. Here, in what is for me, the most important piece of teaching in this text, Jesus says to them, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. DO NOT WORK FOR THE FOOD THAT PERISHES, BUT FOR THE FOOD THAT ENDURES FOR ETERNAL LIFE”. AGAIN John is redirecting attention from the material back to the divine or spiritual in Jesus. The bread here symbolizes the material level of reality—the crowd here REPRESENT CONSUMERS--THEY LOOK FOR JESUS BECAUSE HE SATISFIED THEIR MATERIALISTIC HUNGER--THAT IS WHY JESUS IS CRITICAL OF THEM. In our culture we often pick political leaders based on what they’ll do for the economy—our appetites, our lifestyles—our whole society is geared toward materialism—consumerism—our attention, our work is drawn into this level of reality from the time we are born. In 1999 I was thirty years old and I was looking at my life and my culture and I did not like what I saw—consumerism—an obsession with acquiring things—you were often a winner or a loser based on how much money you earned—what you did for a living.  That year a film called FIGHT CLUB was released. This is a quote from its lead character, “ADVERTISING HAS US CHASING CARS AND CLOTHES, WORKING JOBS WE HATE SO WE CAN BUY THINGS WE DON’T NEED”. Advertising grabs our attention, pulls us into, and holds us in the material level of reality.  Jesus is clearly against this—here he, this mysterious being that walks on water and calls himself I AM,  tells us not to work for that—but to work for food that endures for eternal life—in verse 29 we find out how we work for this spiritual food---through faith in Jesus---the one God has sent. That is where our attention should be—on Jesus, the human being from heaven. In Jesus’ first century apocalyptic Judaism faith meant BEING IN A STATE OF FAITH—brought about by DIRECTING ONE’S ATTENTION TO THE DIVINE in meditative practices. THIS WAS THE WORK THAT ONE DID FOR THE FOOD THAT ENDURES TO ETERNAL LIFE—and here in verse 29 John is doing for us, his readers, what Jesus is doing for the crowd—directing our attention toward this Being who represents the spiritual or divine level of reality.  In verse 30 the crowd sees Jesus is making himself a key figure and they respond skeptically, they say he must prove himself—and it would appropriate for him to do that  by providing more food. We are so often like the crowd—we respond skeptically to the divine and remain fixated on the material. Even when we feel called to help we remain fixated on externals. Often when I think of charity I think of money.  I don’t think of how I can transform myself through spiritual practices so I might actually be capable of loving them the way someone like Jesus might.

In verses 31 through 34 there is another exchange in which the crowd misunderstands Jesus and remains focused on the material, and they essentially ask Jesus to give them an endless supply of free food. By having Jesus redirect the crowd’s attention back to himself, John once again does the same to us—and here Jesus says something truly startling: he says IAM THE BREAD OF LIFE. WHOEVER COMES TO ME WILL NEVER BE HUNGRY AND WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME WILL NEVER BE THIRSTY.  Talk about an attention grabber. Now we’re back to the beginning—what does this mysterious I AM mean anyway? I AM IS THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF ANOCHI, a name of God in the Jewish tradition.  ANOCHI literally translated means “I”. BUT ITS DEEPER, RELIGIOUS meaning is most interesting. A contemporary Rabbi SAYS THIS---Anochi is a NAME OF God FOUND in Exodus and elsewhere, it is a special name of God that carries the meaning of God within. So John, by having Jesus speak I AM sayings or Anochi, is redirecting his readers to God within---remember,  IN JOHN JESUS consistently tells people they are looking in the wrong direction when they focus on externals. That is because they should be directing their attention inward---toward I AM OR GOD WITHIN REPRESENTED BY JESUS IN THE GOSPEL. HERE IS THE REAL GOSPEL OR GOOD NEWS OF JOHN—IF WE DIRECT OUR ATTENTION TO THE BREAD OF LIFE THAT EXISTS WITHIN ALL OF US---WE WILL NEVER BE HUNGRY AND WE WILL NEVER BE THIRSTY! THANKS BE TO GOD!